What You Don’t Know Could Kill You: BC to Make Methadone Ten Times Stronger

In BC, methadone will get ten times stronger in just a few weeks – but most patients don’t know about it – raising the spectre of accidental overdose and death.

People on methadone, those getting help with addiction and patients prescribed opiates are marginalized. Paternalistic programs give them little control over their care regimes and less agency than other groups of patients. Some say they feel they’re treated more like criminals than people with legitimate medical conditions.

The same kind of thing happened in 2012, when Indigenous communities across Canada found themselves careening toward a “mass involuntary opiate withdrawal.” The federal government abruptly cut access to Oxycontin, a highly addictive medication, with little consultation.

Changes in policy around both methadone and Oxycontin, though made at different levels of government, have far reaching implications for patients and those dealing with addictions. Such decisions are often made without consulting the affected patients.

The health and very lives of people is put at risk by the unilateral decisions and poor communication of remote authorities.

Laura Shaver, president of the BC Association of People on Methadone is worried people will die. She has been petitioning authorities to get the word to methadone patients – a group that can be hard to reach, especially in remote northern communities and reserves.

Any other group of patients would be consulted and receive news of this change well in advance. But just weeks ahead of the roll out of the new, stronger methadone, there has been no official communication to patients and users.

When methadone is bought on the black market, anyone who doesn’t know about the new, stronger product could face the potential for overdose and even death, by accidentally ingesting a dose ten times stronger that which they intended.

Aiyanas Ormond of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) is also troubled: “Methadone patients, more than any other large patient group…have very little voice in how the program works and how the rules are going to be set.”

The official silence is deafening. One addictions doctor I spoke to said she had not received any information on the coming changes. She thinks the move is principally a cost saving measure. Mykle Ludvigsen, Director of Public Accountability and Engagement of the College of Pharmacists of BC, said they intend to do something to get the word out but had no concrete plan when I spoke to him. The BC Ministry of Health had “nothing to announce at this time.”

Shaver remains concerned that not everyone will hear about the stronger methadone and people will die. Her organization does not have fancy offices, paid staff or much funding. It has limited capacity to address a serious province-wide public health issue.

VANDU’s Ormond said that patients must “actually have some power over the decisions” and that he’s seen “lots of supposedly benevolent improvements in treatments that…ended up marginalizing people further.”

A Mass, Involuntary Opiate Withdrawal

Another supposedly “benevolent improvement” happened two years ago when Health Canada suddenly cut off access to an opiate being prescribed by thousands and purchased on the black market by thousands more. There was no real plan for when people suddenly found themselves without the habit-forming drug. It was cold turkey by way of federal health policy.

Substitute medications are considered on a “case by case basis.” But patients had no choice or agency in this decision.

In February 2012, Oxycontin was delisted from Health Canada’s Non-Insured Health Benefits Program, which covers prescription drug costs for nearly a million “registered First Nations” and “recognized Inuit.” Federal drug and dental coverage for some Indigenous people is rooted in the right to access the medicine chests of Indian agents, promised as part of some treaties.

In Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities around Canada, Oxycontin addiction has become a serious problem. In 2009, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation declared a prescription drug abuse state of emergency. At that time, a nation representative estimated that fully one third of the Northern Ontario territory’s Indigenous residents were addicted to Oxy.

Community leaders have long called for government action on this issue and for more harm reduction and drug treatment capacity. But the sudden cut-off of such a medication only creates the potential of withdrawal crisis, and a panic to find substitutes – like heroin.

Metatawabin said that “problems are intensified in the remote northern communities for those who are addicted to Oxycontin and do not have access to drug treatment programs.”
The decision to cut Oxy was made despite the risk of serious health crisis in many communities.

Control of some health programs are slowly being transferred to the control of band councils and in BC, to the First Nations Health Authority. Though, the national authority to add and delist prescription drugs, like Oxycontin, largely remains with Ottawa.

Medical Marginalization

Methadone patients and drug users in Indigenous country are not afforded the communication and consultation that other patient groups receive from health practitioners and government authorities
In the case of prescription opiates, like methadone and Oxycontin, this marginalization can mean serious public health impacts, overdoses and even death.

Garth Mullins is an award-winning broadcaster, writer, activist and musician living in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. Follow him on Twitter @garthmullins

Garth Mullins

An addiction specialist told me the BC government is doing this to save money. The BC College of Pharmacists says the changes are “standardize” methadone treatment with that of other provinces.

The supposed benefit is that it will become slightly more difficult for corrupt pharmacists to dilute the medication, There have been stories of some pharmacists diverting some of the medication to the black market

Without this information, overdose risks are faced by both native and non-native patients and users. Warning the 15,000 methadone patients is not a quick or easy job. I don’t know if that job is made more or less difficult by their native / non-native background. I believe the individual circumstances would be more important, especially their amount of contact with various kinds of health, social or advocacy organizations that might provide such warnings. .

Garry Horsnell

I think you are right. It will be as difficult to contact non native addicts as native addicts and it will depend on their individual circumstances.

By the way, why would it be any more difficult for a corrupt pharmacist to dilute methadone that is 10 times stronger than it was to dilute before? At ten times stronger, one would think a corrupt pharmacist could get even more dilutions.

And why would it be harder for a corrupt pharmacist to divert methadone to the black market just because it is 10 times stronger?

The logic eludes me.

Garry Horsnell

Why is the BC government making methadone 10 times stronger? Wouldn’t it be more costly with 10 times more methadone per drink or dose?

What good is that supposed to do for addicts?

And won’t native and non native addicts be affected when the change is made? Why would non native addicts be any easier to reach and inform than native addicts?